Have Blues Will Travel

Today the GS presents a random sampling of gravel-scratchers, records about gettin' the hell out of town, whether baby done 'em wrong, they can't stand the sinful ways of the big, big city, or they just caught a dose of white line fever.


First up: Eddie Noack's "Have Blues Will Travel." Noack is best known for his 1968 version of the Leon Payne song "Psycho," on the K-Ark label. Long before that, however, he cut many great country records for the Gold Star and 4-Star labels, the earliest of which date back to the '40s. In the late '50s Noack recorded several sides for Pappy Dailey's Starday and D labels. Noack wrote most of these latter songs --spare, mid-tempo numbers like "Walk 'Em Off" and "Take it Away Lucky" noted for their hard-bitten lyrics and ponderous, reverb heavy guitar. On this one the singer's hittin' the road, "Feelin' low, gotta go unravel... long gone, movin' on, scratchin' gravel..."



Next up is everyone's favorite Cherokee bopper, Marvin Rainwater, with "Boo Hoo," recorded for the Warwick label in 1961, after his classic MGM days. The lyrics here speak for themselves: "gonna leave this lonesome town... ain't no use me hangin' around..."


And speaking of Cherokees, we wrap up today's post with something by the King of the Cherokee Boogie, Moon Mullican. Here Moon's kissing off the "Big, Big City" on a single from 1965 on the Hall-Way label. Is that country fuzz we hear oozing from the rhythm guitar? And how frightening is that Hall-Way logo? Like when you inked a deal with the Hall-Way label did your life/career then move down the hallway, beginning the slide toward that final vanishing point? Mood did get his card punched a mere two years after this record.